Eclipse 98

1998 Feb 26

>
> Greetings from Aruba.
[snip]
> Many cruise ships were chasing the centerline. The big Carnival
> "Fascination" shot by at what looked like 50 knots!

Probably more like half that. :) I don't know what its top speed is,
but I do know the fascination can do 20 knots without breaking a sweat.

We were on that boat! Along the way, it looked pretty grim...we even
got a sprinkle of rain. Shortly before first contact, the Captain got
us into a very clear area and we saw the whole thing! From our
perspective Aruba looked clouded over, but seemed to clear somewhat at
the last minute. We couldn't be sure they saw it. We stopped off at
Aruba in the morning to let those go ashore who wanted to be on land
(mostly the heavy-weight astrophotographers). When we returned that
afternoon most of them were waiting on the dock and it was obvious from
all the smiles that they saw it too!

The Fascination was surprisingly stable. I got a bunch of photos using
a 400 mm and 1000 mm (C-90) lens (two cameras) and most of the shots
came out about as well as would have been the case on land. For the
most part there was only a small slow drift that made the long exposures
difficult. Dave Harrington got some good shots on board with a 3.5"
Questar which were printed as 8x10's and made available to all (the
ship has a full-blown photo lab on board). They came out quite well
too.

By the way, aside from the eclipse, the Fascination isn't a bad choice
for a cruise...I hated to leave. :)